100 years ago in Spokane: Charity provides for the smallest among us

The El Katif Shrine staged a Christmas feast for “700 deserving children,” as identified by the social service bureau.

It began with a show at the Liberty Theater. Then the children were marched to the Masonic Temple and downstairs “in an orderly manner to the strains of ‘The Star Spangled Banner.’ ”

Order then dissolved as the children made “an enthusiastic rush to the tables.”

“Nearly all nations were represented at the feast,” said the paper.

“Tow-headed little Scandinavian children” sat wedged between Greeks, Italians and dark-skinned children, although the paper used a cruder term than “dark-skinned.”

The children dug in to their feast enthusiastically, although some had trouble figuring out how to eat their creamed peas with a knife.

They all received cake and ice cream for dessert, and then were presented with an orange and an apple. After that, they all received a present from Santa Claus.

A boy who received a doll was seen “forcefully” trading it to a girl in exchange for a horn.

From the diet beat: Ed Reinhart, 37, the logger who went on a 46-day fast in the belief it would cure his rheumatism, was booked at the police station as “an insanity suspect.”

Someone complained that he had been “annoying women.”

At the station, he talked incoherently about the Wobblies, but no Wobbly card was found on him. He had lost 49 pounds during his fast.